Toy for bird cage



March 19, 1957 v zzo 2,785,506

TOY FOR BIRD CAGE Filed Jan. 9, 1956 N V EN TOR. \SaM ww ATTORNEYS United States P m a TOY FOR BIRD CAGE Vivian Ragazzo, West Hempstead, N. Y., assignor t Wintriss, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application January 9, 1956, Serial No. 558,135

3 Claims. (Cl. 46-175) This invention relates to pneumatic sound maker toys which are intendedprimarily as toys for parakeets or other birds; but the toy is also attractive to children.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved pneumatic sound maker toy having a body portion with i a passage therethrough, a sound maker in the passage, and a bellows attached to one end of the body portion to form an integral assembly. One feature of the invention relates to the construction of the body portion with grooves for receiving the bars of a bird cage so that the toy can be located at any adjusted height along the bars in convenient position to be used by a bird within the cage.

Another object of the invention is to provide a toy of the character indicated with a circular and tapered body portion having circumferential grooves at axially spaced locations for engaging bars of different bird cages which have bars at different spacings.

Other features of the invention relate to a construction which makes the assembly of the toy convenient and less expensive, and to a construction providing substantial surface areas for adhesively securing the bellows to the body portion of the toy. The construction has an additional feature whereby the forces deforming the bellows have only limited components in directions to pull the bellows loose from its adhesive.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views;

Figure l is a side elevation showing a bird cage equipped with the sound maker toy of this invention;

Figure 2 is a greatly enlarged front elevation of the pneumatic sound maker toy shown in Figure l, and with portions of a few of the bars of the bird cage included in the view;

Figure 3 is. a sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the toy shown in Figure 2 with a portion of the toy broken away and in section along the line 44 of Figure 2.

Figure 1 shows a bird cage carried by a support 11. The bird cage has the usual bars 13 and there are perches 15 and 16 at various locations within the cage.

The perches are of the type which are adjustable vertically along the bars which hold them. The drawing shows a parakeet 18 on one of the perches, and there is a pneumatic sound maker toy 20 attached to the cage at a convenient location to be peeked by the parakeet 18. This toy 26 is vertically adjustable to accommodate its position to the location of the perch and to the size of the bird.

The construction of the toy 20 for connecting it with the bars 13 is best shown in Figures 2 and 3. The toy has a body 22, which is preferably made of wood, of circular cross section. The body has a rearward end face 24 and a forward end face 26, the latter being generally concave or tapered. The outside surface of the body 22 tapers ,to a smaller diameter toward the rearward face 24 and there are circumferential grooves 31, 32 and 33 at axially spaced locations along the tapered surface of the body 22. These grooves are engaged by the bars 13 of the bird cage.

the spacing of the bars of a cage is substantially equal to the diameter of the body 22 at the groove 31, then the toy is held in place by bars engaged in this groove 31. in the construction illustrated, the spacing of the bars 13 is slightly less than the diameter of the body 22 at the groove 32. These bars 13 are made to engage the groove 32 by springing the bars 13 away from one another to a slight extent, as illustrated in Figure 2.

For a cage with bars more widely spaced, the bars can be engaged in the groove 33. The taper of the outside surface of the body 22 is gradual enough so that the groove 3f, 32 or 33 connects the toy with any of the commercially available cages that are used for small birds of the breeds to which this toy is attractive.

There is a passage 38 extending through the body 22 from the forward to the rearward face. This passage 38 has a counterbore it? at its forward end. A pneumatic sound maker 42 is located within the passage 38. This pneumatic sound maker has a tubular end portion 44 with an open 45 (Figure 4), and this tubular portion fits snugly within the small diameter portion of the passage 33 and i held therein by friction with the wall of the passage. The tubular portion is bent inward to a slightly smaller diameter when inserted into passage 38, the seam edges being brought closer together and the spring of the metal increases the friction pressure. The forward end of the sound maker 42 includes a channel as and a reed 48 connected in accordance with conventional construction and located within the counterbore dtl.

A bellows is attached to the forward end of the body 22. This bellows 5%} has a front wall 52 and a rearward wall The rearward wall is shaped to fit the depressed front face 26 of the body portion 22 and is secured to this front face 26 by adhesive indicated by the reference character 56.

The bellows 5ft has an opening 68 at its rearward end communicating with the passage 33. This opening 60 is preferably surrounded by a neck 62 extending into the counterbore for a sufficient distance to surround at least a portion of the length of the pneumatic sound maker 42, though with ample clearance from the sound maker to provide for wide manufacturing tolerances. The neck 62 fits the counterboro 4t} and there is adhesive 56 securing the outside surface of the neck 62 to the side wall of the counterbore.

It will be apparent that the depressed face 26, and the location of the neck 62 in the counterbo-re 40 provide adhesively secured surfaces of the bellows 50 which are subject to very little strain by forces which distort the bellows to discharge air through the passage 38 and sound maker 42. This makes the construction more rugged.

The bellows 59 is preferably a rubber bulb; the term rubber being used herein to indicate natural rubber and its mechanical equivalents among the synthetic rubbers and plastics. The walls of the bellows 50 are of such resilience and strength as to be self-sustaining and capable of springing back to their original shape when distorted to blow air through the sound maker. In order to have the toy operate easily with the limited force exerted by a bird, the side walls of the bellows are made as weak as is consistent with their being self-sustaining and capable of springing back to their original shape after being distorted.

The body 22 can be of any color, but the outside surface of the bellows 50 is preferably a bright color so as to attract the attention of the bird. Experience has shown that bright red is a suitable color, and this has the advantage of being one which can be economically obtained by using red rubber.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, but changes and modifications can be made and some features can be used in different combinations without departing from the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A pneumatic sound maker toy for birds including a body portion having an air passage therethrough extending from its forward to its rearward face, and the body portion having an outside surface that tapers to a smaller diameter toward the rearward end and having grooves on opposite sides of its outside surface for receiving the bars of a bird cage for attaching the toy to the cage, a pneumatic sound maker in the passage, and a bellows at the forward end of the body portion and having an opening communicating with the passage and a rearward face surrounding the opening and contacting with the front face of the body portion, the bellows having self-sustaining walls that spring back to shape after deformation and having its outside surface of a color to attract the attention of a bird, the bellows being connected to the body portion with the rearward face of the bellows confronting the forward face of the body portion of the toy.

2. The pneumatic sound maker toy described in claim 1 and in which the body portion is of circular cross section 4 and there are a plurality of circumferentially extendin grooves at axially spaced locations along the body portion for engaging the bars of cages having different spacing between the bars.

3. The pneumatic sound maker toy described in claim 2 and in which the body portion is a wooden element having a concave front face with a counterbore at the forward end of the air passage, and in' which the sound maker has a reed and channel and a tubular rearward end which fits into the air passage beyond the counterbore and is held therein by friction, the reed and channel portion of the sound maker being located within the counterbore, the bellows having a neck around its opening and the neck being of a size to fit the counterbore and to surround at least a portion of the lengthof the sound maker with a substantial clearance from the sound maker, adhesive securing the neck of the bellows to the wall of the counterbore, the bellows being a rubber bulb of generally cylindrical cross section and of a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the forward end of the wooden element, and the bulb being of a resilience which makes the side walls self-sustaining and capable of springing back into shape after deformation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 325,313 Boerner Sept. 1, 1885 1,397,263 Carrnody d. Nov. 15, 19 21 1,485,577 Witten Mar. 4, 1924 2,721,420 Chatten Oct. 25, 1955 

